A Drive-By Shooting
Los Angeles, California 1995
I was in my second or third semester of photography class. I took my camera with me everywhere I went. It’s what a serious photographer does and I was trying to be serious.
We were rolling through an intersection on Sunset Boulevard when I spotted this man and the markee with the word Kafka. My husband was driving, BTW. In those days, you couldn’t just check your LCD screen to see your shot. I had to wait until I’d processed the film and printed the shot in the darkroom. To me it was perfect. I didn’t tell the teacher that I’d shot if from a car window. He hated drive-by shootings, but he liked this photo.
I can see now that the photo isn’t sharp, but they don’t always have to be and soft focus adds to the story. It’s the word Kafka that makes this worth a second glance.